Anish Vij
An unlucky customer was slapped with an £100 fine for 'eating his McDonald's meal too slowly'.
What was supposed to be a quick bite with his brother turned into 'the most expensive McDonald’s' meal ever.
Shapour Meftah fancied having a catch up with his brother for a Maccies after work and parked his his car in the restaurant while thinking nothing of it.
However, he was furious after he received two penalty notices through his letter box several days later.
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The fixed penalty notices were issued by a private parking company, which tallied up to £100 for his two visits to the McDonald's on Newmarket Road on the evening of January 4 and January 6 2023.
The company claims he had surpassed the 90 minute allocation for McDonald's customers at the car park.
"It was parking from hell - the most expensive McDonald's I've ever had," he told Cambridgeshire Live.
If Shapour doesn't pay the fine within a week, the amount that is owed will rise to £100 per ticket.
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He added: "There's no sign inside McDonald's that says you have 90 minutes to sit down, eat and go. You don't want to rush your meal and we ordered quite a bit of food."
Shapour went to McDonald's to appeal the penalty notice and said: "There's no way you can get help from them. I tried talking to them and they said it was nothing to do with them. There's no way on earth they'll help you."
Explaining the regulations, a representative from the company said: "We have parking restrictions in place at a number of our restaurants, with a time limit to ensure there is adequate parking for all of our customers.
"Ample signage regarding these restrictions is clearly displayed both as you drive into the car park and on various lampposts within it.
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"If a customer believes they have been issued a ticket incorrectly, they should appeal it as per the parking control company guidelines."
An extract from website MoneySavingExpert also states: "Private parking companies have no official right to fine you, though they may try to make you think they do.
"All they're doing is sending you a notice of what they deem to be a breach of contract.
"It isn't the ability of private companies to issue tickets in itself that's a problem though.
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"It's the unstructured system which puts unnecessary power in potentially unscrupulous hands".
Shapour has put in an appeal for UK Parking Control to revoke the penalty notice.
LADbible has contacted McDonald's and UK Parking Control for a comment.